


Raised by Dogs

by thewightknight



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Laughter, New Relationship, learning to live with each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 18:18:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14001831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/pseuds/thewightknight
Summary: He surprises a laugh out of her. She doesn’t understand how he does it. He’s not that funny. Really he isn’t, despite what he thinks.





	Raised by Dogs

He surprises a laugh out of her. She doesn’t understand how he does it. He’s not that funny. Really he isn’t, despite what he thinks.

And yet there they are, staring across the map spread over the table, listening to Arl Eamon talk about the border patrols and he makes this _face_ , and a giggle bursts out of her before she can stop it. She turns it into a cough and it fools Eamon, but not him. He grins at her, waggling his eyebrows in that ridiculous way, and she scowls at him, but he’s irrepressible.

Two days later he does it to her again. They’re holding court and she’s doing her best to pay attention even though this matter should never have gotten to her, petty bickering disguised as an inheritance issue. The distant cousin who’s trying to claim he was cheated out of his share in the family holding even though he’d spent his entire adult life in Orlais raises his scented handkerchief to his nose again and Alistair mutters under his breath, _look ze smell of wet dog overwhelmz me again,_ in an overblown impression of an Orlesian accent. She raises her own hand to her mouth, pretending to cough again, but he can see the smile she covers from where he sits at her side and his hand falls on top of her knee, squeezing briefly, pulling away before she can react.

When they receive confirmation that their ambassador has managed to get the empress to agree to the trade concessions they’d been angling for, he wraps his arms around her waist and picks her up, swinging her in circles until she begs him to stop, dizzy and breathless from shrieks of laughter. When he sets her down he kisses her on the forehead, right between the eyes, before releasing her.

“Is everything a joke to you?” she asks him one evening over dinner.

“No, not everything. Just almost everything,” he replies, winking at her again, and when had that become endearing instead of annoying? “I was raised by dogs, remember? And dogs are always smiling.”

She didn’t remember him telling her he’d been raised by dogs. She thought about mentioning that, but held back. He might have, in those early days, when she considered him a nuisance, something to be endured in order to attain her goal.

“What now, my queen?” he asks her one morning after they’d made their way through the stack of correspondence that needed their attention.

“I thought we’d visit the kennels. We should check in on your relatives. See they’re doing well,” she replies.

He stares at her for an instant, jaw hanging open in shock, then bursts out into laughter, and she smiles, rising and offering him her hand.

As she watches him scoop up one of the new puppies in each hand, holding them up to his face and giggling as they cover him with slobbering kisses, she doesn’t cover her mouth to hide her smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you want to say hi, [check out my profile](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewightknight/profile) for where I’m currently hanging out on this here internet thing.


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